Get ready ...
We take you now live to a lounge in a Mosgiel home shortly before kick-off in the Rugby World Cup quarterfinal between the All Blacks and France tomorrow morning.
Your hosts are a couple — we shall call them Hadrian and Alicent, to protect their identities — who are not sitting as closely together as normal. There is, it must be said, some tension in the air.
Alicent: Oh, they will.
H: And the best team is?
A: Pfft. The All Blacks, of course.
H: Hmm, well. The official world rankings would beg to differ. Ireland No 1, your beloved All Blacks way down at No 4. Ouch.
A: Since when have world rankings been relevant?
H: Certainly not in 2007, when the All Blacks were red-hot favourites and crashed out in the quarterfinals! BOOM.
A: Go away.
H: To be fair — or I suppose I should say "to be sure" — Ireland have won 17 straight tests. SEVENTEEN.
A: Irrelevant.
H: And they’ve beaten the All Blacks in four of the past six clashes between the teams.
A: Irrelevant.
... for the big game
H: The Irish don’t have a single weakness.
A: Neither do the All Blacks.
H: Pfft.
A: We’ve got Richie Mo’unga.
H: Flat-track bully.
A: We’ve got Will Jordan.
H: He won’t see the ball.
A: We’ve got Ardie!
H: Fair point. We’ve got Ardie.
A: I see the world’s best referee, Wayne Barnes, is the man in the middle.
H: Yep. Wayne Barnes, All Blacks quarterfinal, nothing to see here!
A: Go away.
H: I’m not a gambling man, but I note the TAB have the All Blacks as underdogs for just the fifth time in 360 games since they first offered sports betting in 1996.
A: Irrelevant. All Blacks will win by 20.
H: Ireland by 12.
A: Traitor.
Portugal pride
There were some nice stories from the opening rounds of a Rugby World Cup that featured too many down days and mismatches but should be set for a grandstand finish.
The Last Word particularly enjoyed seeing Portugal beating Fiji, a result that would have seemed unthinkable a few years ago.
Those were real tears as the Portuguese players jumped into each other’s arms and celebrated the greatest moment in their history.
Rugby has some real issues, but there should be great excitement at the thought of the sport starting to take a hold in countries well underneath the radar.
Even the plucky Australians did their very best to make the quarterfinals. What a fairy tale that could have been, ahem.
Some progress
Very pleasing to see Super Rugby Aupiki get extended next year.
There is a long way to go — both in terms of the product and of public interest in it — but small steps and all that.
I hope all four clubs have got the message that they must do everything possible to engage with the community and the media, and I also hope New Zealand Rugby will ensure the rock stars of women’s rugby actually play in the competition.
Strewth
Cricket has been drunk for years, but Jake Fraser-McGurk took it to another level recently, in case you missed it.
Fraser-McGurk smoked the fastest century in the professional game — off a ridiculous 29 balls — for South Australia in their Marsh Cup game against Tasmania.
Yes, 29 balls. Insane.
It beat AB de Villiers’ 31-ball effort against the West Indies as the fastest ton in List A cricket, and bettered by one the 30-ball century scored by Chris Gayle in an IPL game.
Where does this madness end?
Southern stars
Whisper it quietly, but one of the really impressive developing stories in Otago sport is the performance of the Southern United footballers.
Our women finished fourth in the national league last year and have started this season with two wins and a gutsy one-goal loss to the defending champions.
It is a little disappointing that we have a national men’s league with no southern representation, but I’d encourage you to get behind the Southern United women, who play some nice football and seem like a decent bunch.
Quote of the week
"Without veering into hyperbole, it’s so that we don’t all die. It’s just a massive topic for everybody. It’s the biggest topic that we will face."
Sport England boss Chris Boardman did not hold back as he told the Guardian that sport needed to do more to fight the climate crisis.
Boardman has indicated his organisation, which invests more than £300 million of public money every year, will be putting more pressure on sports to decarbonise and protect the environment.
Final thought
Cricket at the Olympic Games?
No. That will be a hard no from me.
The fact cricket is set to be ratified for inclusion at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is a bit of a nonsense, really.
Cricket has plenty of time-honoured competitions, including a World Cup, and I suspect most of us would look forward to seeing the sport at the Olympics about as much as we would enjoy invasive dental treatment with no anaesthetic.
